Gourmet Traveller's favourite dishes of 2011

3:35PM, Dec 12, 2011

I ate a bunch of really nasty things in 2011, both in and out of
the course of duty. Some of them rotten, some of them inept,
pointless, or stupid, others just plain dull. Oyster ice-cream.
Sliced oysters and raw squid with umeboshi and a vile,
Provençal-ish tofu made by gelling soy milk flavoured with
lavender, combining the hitherto discrete qualities of "flowery",
"fishy" and "slimy". Things poached in seawater shipped from the
Hawaiian ocean floor. Things that really shouldn't be put in sous
vide machines. And fish semen. Really not getting the hang of that
one.

But here's the thing: for every mind-numbingly uninspired,
paint-by-numbers variation on the new
quenelle-crumble-dust-poached-lump-of-something-with-a-poured-on-soup
routine I've forced myself to stay awake through this year, there's
been at least one smart, witty-but-not-too-precious thing to
balance it out. Things that are honest and gutsy, and that taste
good to boot. Things that don't need inverted commas around them to
make them interesting. Truly inventive things. Believe it or not,
I've even eaten dishes that have had no flowers or micro-herbs on
them.

Things, in short, are looking good. Here's some stuff that
impressed me and the rest of the GT gums-for-hire over the
course of 2011. Hit us back on Twitter
and let us know what's wowed you.

Pat Nourse, chief restaurant critic
Laksa assam, Lam Kong Coffee Shop, PenangMy working title for this one was Pretty Much Everything I
Ate in Penang. By dint of demography, geography, history and
inclination, the people of Penang have evolved into some of the
world's most serious eaters. To put it very mildly, it's not a hard
place to eat well. And when a table of really serious eaters get
together, talk soon turns to laksa assam, and from there, naturally
enough, to the small town of Balik Pulau, on the Malaysian island's
quieter western half. The assam laksa of Penang is to the
coconut-choked slop that passes for laksa lemak in this country as
Beethoven is to Bieber. Here, at a small stall in a coffee house,
say some (though certainly not all) of Penang's laksa lovers, lies
laksa perfection. You don't need to be any kind of expert at all to
see the tangy brilliance in the balance of such seemingly disparate
ingredients as mackerel, chilli, pineapple, tamarind, Vietnamese
mint and ginger flowers. Throw in a fresh nutmeg juice and know
streetside eating nirvana. And get change out of a
tenner.

Sandwich of rye bread, chicken skin, lumpfish roe and
smoked cheese, Noma,
Copenhagen [pictured]There are worthier dishes at Noma. Dishes that boldly go.
More arresting stuff. More oddly local stuff made with even more
oddly Nordic ingredients. Bits of trees. But for simple
I-want-to-eat-this-again-right-now-please tastiness, my vote goes
to this crisp two-bite flavour bomb. God's gift to beer snacks.

Pork petit four, Momofuku
Seiobo, SydneyCould've been the savoury custard thing with the
chicken sauce and the tea. Could've been the pleasure of savouring
the damn pork buns on home ground. But in the final analysis it had
to be what has come to be called the pork petit four. Call it
outlandish, call it a happy mistake, call it Ishmael - throwing
down an eat-with-your-hands slow-cooked pork shoulder after the
desserts at the end of a dégustation is exactly the kind of
the-hell-with-it gesture that makes David Chang's restaurants so
great. That and the straight-up pleasures of eating a hunk of pork
located in that happy place between confit and caramel.

Whisky gums, The Fat Duck, BrayLittle wine-gums stuck on a map of Scotland? Cute
idea. Making them taste exactly like the whisky made by the key
distilleries of the region - Highland, Lowland, Speyside, Islay and
beyond? That's what keeps The Fat Duck ahead of the game.

Char siu pork, Dynasty, Hong KongThey said it was the best char siu pork in Hong Kong. They
were right.

Ikura, Sushi Kanesaka, TokyoKaneseka was dazzling in all the ways a top-flight Ginza
sushi restaurant ought to be, but the very best dish wasn't the
intricately sliced kohada or the superbly seasonal anago three
ways, nor was it the simple quality of the rice (which was beyond
reproach). The dish of the day was, instead, a small bowl of the
freshest cold-water salmon roe, the exquisitely fragile
eggs dressed with nothing more than a zesting of yuzu.

Raw beef, The Bridge
Room, Sydney"Neither carpaccio nor tartare," wrote some wise old
whippersnapper of this almost instant signature at one of Sydney's
most impressive new restaurants, "it comprises gossamer-thin sheets
of well-marbled pink-and-white wagyu draped over little bundles of
smoked enoki mushrooms, accented with Microplaned horseradish
and ... Celtic sea salt. Impossibly thin rings of pickled
chilli are an inspired addition." Word.

Blue mackerel, Generation
Next, Est., SydneyEvery year we do a dinner where we invite
up-and-coming chefs from around the country to come together and
cook like the blazes for a highly appreciative audience at Est., in
Sydney. This year's crew nailed it so thoroughly that you'd have to
go to the photo-finish to pick the dish of the night. I reckon I'd
give it to Lennox Hastie, the hearthmaster who has recently left
his post as head chef at Etxebarri, the cooking-with-fire
pilgrimage site in the Basque country, to open a restaurant in
Sydney. Blue mackerel, fresh as the day is long, its briny
brightness exaggerated, somehow, by careful cooking over coals. An
enticing suggestion of more good things to come from a talented
young chef. Stay tuned.

Croque-monsieur, Ved
Stranden 10, CopenhagenWine is unabashedly the thing at Ved Stranden, a wine
bar that bookends Noma as a reason to stay at least another day in
the Danish capital. And exotic, unusual and consistently
well-chosen wine it is, too. They do very, very little food -
rillettes that gets brought up weekly from the Loire, and a croque
monsieur. Both are sen-f***ing-sational. They've spent months
trying to make the croque as good as they possibly can, and by god,
it's a masterpiece painted in cheese and mustard, ham and bread, a
thumbed nose to France, and almost perfect ballast.

The Ron Burgundy, Viajante bar, London Rare is the dish (let alone the cocktail) with a gag name
that satisfies both the palate and the sense of humour. This makes
The Ron Burgundy doubly satisfying. Served, oddly enough, by a
ridiculously young Noosa-born bartender, Alex McKechnie (he's since
moved on), it's a play on the name of the lead in Will Ferrell's
2004 farce, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Rum
equals the Ron, pinot noir the Burgundy. It arrives on a
leather-bound book under a smoke-filled cloche, and yes, it smells
of rich mahogany.

Michael Harden, Victoria editor
Piccata of chicken livers with fresh pappardelle, Bistro Gitan,
MelbourneChicken livers can be mean when not treated nicely. In
gently searing them with a mix of Kaiserfleisch, pickled shallots,
button mushrooms, garlic and butter and then popping them on house
made pappardelle and adding a hint of sugar with balsamic, though,
chef Steven Nelson, sure brings out their sweet side.

Violet ice-cream, chocolate ganache, sour cherry with
clove meringue, Cutler & Co.,
MelbourneYou'd be happy just gazing upon this pretty, artfully
plated dessert with its blushing pinks, browns and fluffy tufts of
almond chiffon sponge. But start tucking into the floral, aromatic
flavours and crisp and silky textures and it's soon apparent that
eating with the mouth trumps eating with the eyes.

Rotisserie chicken, PM24, MelbourneThis organic chicken, slow roasted (on an impressive
red enamel rotisserie no less) and flavoured with nothing more than
rosemary, preserved lemon, salt and pepper is the poster child for
simple things done beautifully. Teamed with vegetables basted in
the juice of the bird, it's the stuff of addiction.

Pine mushrooms and veal tongue, Loam, DrysdaleFreshly picked pine mushrooms sitting in a beurre
blanc - flavoured subtly with fresh juniper branches - are topped
with a flurry of shreds of veal tongue that's been dehydrated to an
intense, slightly crisp-and-chewy state that's a whole lot of
slightly weird fun to eat.

Tuna tartare with Moroccan eggplant and harissa, Rockpool Bar & Grill,
SydneySurely this couldn't work, this beautiful tuna sharing
a plate with fiery, insistent harissa, slippery, Moroccan-spiced
eggplant and creamy cumin mayonnaise? But it does, in the best and
most ethereal way where every flavour and texture seems to have
found exactly the right level.

Live fjord prawns with brown butter sauce, Noma, CopenhagenThey arrive in a closed flip-top jar filled with ice,
these little semi-translucent prawns, waving their feelers about
when the lid is opened, confronting you with the idea of popping
something alive and wriggling into your mouth with just a dab of
brown butter sauce. The vibrant, unrepeatable flavour can make you
go all hippie with talk of the life force.

Soft-shell crab and avocado rice paper rolls with Mrs
T's magical sauce, Dandelion,
MelbourneThe roll is good, with its crisp and soft textures and
excellent quality crab, but it's the sauce - the recipe for which
Geoff Lindsay obtained from the wife of one of his regular
Vietnamese grocery suppliers on Richmond's Victoria Street - that
kicks it into another league. Pungent fish sauce, chilli, crushed
pineapple all contribute to its zinging, sprightly beauty.

Eel and bone marrow, Royal
Mail Hotel, DunkeldSmoked eel in a nougatine-base, flattened and
dehydrated into paper-like sheets, sitting on top of intensely rich
bone marrow, a tangy eggplant purée with chocolate and white miso
burned onto the plate and tiny little pickled radishes, turnip and
beetroots - this disparate-seeming collection of intense flavours
comes together with all the pop, fizz and bang that make Dan
Hunter's food so enjoyable.

Max Veenhuyzen, Western Australia editor
Charcoal roast Swan River crab, Rockpool Bar & Grill,
PerthNever mind the steak. For mine, season one of Rockpool
Bar & Grill Perth is best remembered for the local swimmer
crab, brought to its full sweet and smoky potential through the
magic of charcoal. Together with the aromatic Tex-Mex kapow of
jalapeño, coriander, cumin and preserved lemon, it's a partnership
fierce enough to almost make beef an afterthought.

Tartare of yellow fin tuna, Sepia, SydneyOr as it appears on the menu: "tartare of yellow fin
tuna, warm leek cream, poached egg yolk, soy and wasabi, sprouting
caviar lentils, amaranth grain". As the comprehensive descriptor
suggests, this contains more than a whisper of that Royal Mail
Hotel signature, but it's the dish's pronounced Japanese accent -
the cubes of vivid red tuna, in particular - that distances it from
the rest of the country's "egg yolk, toasted rye, legumes and
yeast" doppelgangers.

Kazunoko, Chihana, KyotoElegance and seasonality have been constants at this
itamae kappo restaurant since 1946, but in terms of a standout,
it's hard to go past the unexpected crunch of herring roe marinated
in sake, dashi and soy.

Richard's slow-cooked pork belly, University Asian
Restaurant, PerthYou won't find this on the menu, but instead scrawled on
various mirrors decorating this popular student haunt. It's also a
winter-only treat, however the melty, gravy-rich awesomeness of
pork belly braised in 18-year-old master stock and tucked into
warm, fluffy mantou buns handsomely rewards the patient. One really
is never enough.

Vietnamese pancakes with chicken, green papaya and nahm
jim, Greenhouse,
Perth
"Vietnamese pancakes" usually conjures images of crisp yellow banh
xeo, but chef Matt Stone has a way of confounding expectations.
Here, the one-time GT Best New Talent winner delivers a
trio of crunchy part-blini, part-taco "pancakes" together with an
intense salad of sprouts, chilli, poached chook and a whole damn
kitchen sink of hot, sour and salty flavour.

Beef tongue, vanilla, myrtus, lettuce stems, Attica, MelbourneVelvety, smoky and coated with a jumble of soft herbs,
pickled lettuce stems and crushed myrtus berries, this dazzling
take on this oft-ignored bovine cut - hot smoked and from purebred
Black Angus - is as tasty as it is resourceful.

Quince and pear crumble, Foragers,
Pemberton Textural abracadabra, offbeat combinations and "dish
names framed by quotation marks" are all good and well, yet
sometimes the body just wants comfort. And so it is with this
baked, buttery and still-warm nightcap, the local fruit poached
with Pedro Ximénez, not liquid nitrogen, the accompanying chestnut
and honey ice-cream churned using conventional rather than Pacojet
technology. Chalk up a win for the old-school.

Anchovy, scallop, tomatoes, Restaurant Amusé, PerthThe melange of Ortiz anchovies, jamón Ibérico and
slow-cooked tomato could be a food postcard from anywhere on the
Mediterranean, but look instead to those fusilli-like spirals for a
true measure of Hadleigh Troy's smarts, the talented chef slyly
swapping durum wheat for a "pasta" of dashi-poached scallop
skirt.

Notorious PIG Juicy, Coda,
MelbourneThe setting was down an alley in Melbourne not Los
Angeles, and guests didn't need to rely on Twitter to know where
Roy Choi was going to pop up. But despite the breaks with the
typical Kogi BBQ food truck experience, the Los Angelino's bold,
multicultural cuisine effortlessly survived the cross-continental
journey, these hunks of brined then quintuple-char-grilled porky
goodness a highlight of this year's Melbourne Food & Wine
Festival.

David Sly, South Australia editor
Hallett Cove, Penfolds Magill
Estate, Adelaide Named after a metropolitan Adelaide diving site, this
dish presents contrasting fresh fillets - snook, Coorong mullet,
tommy ruff - with four seaweeds and chef Jock Zonfrillo's own
"sponge" served on a smooth black stone picked from the beach. Warm
aromatic crab broth poured at the table brings an intense marine
tang in a clever and very effective presentation.

Scallop gnocchi, Celsius,
AdelaideAlways inventive, chef Ayhan Erkoc takes a very
different route with outstanding wild-caught Kangaroo Island
scallops, shaping them into gnocchi that become glorious textural
partners with cauliflower, broad bean and the slightest bit of
fennel.

Red duck curry, FermentAsian, TanundaOwner-chef Tuoi Do uses spice with a gentle touch to
provide deep flavour harmony rather than a violent heat blast in
red duck curry studded with a perfectly few pieces of lychee and
pineapple.

Terrine of pig's ears, Bistro Dom, AdelaideNice to see bistro classics executed with respect, and
devoid of unnecessary fussiness - here the terrine's piquant edge
is accentuated by a celeriac rémoulade and mustard fruits.

Spring trio of artichoke, broad beans and asparagus with
lamb loin, Appellation,
Marananga Mark McNamara's kitchen garden is the source of
inspiration for his best dishes. His garden's spring produce,
picked immediately before gentle cooking, becomes the hero of this
dish, with delicate rare lamb serving as a rich foil.

Lamb's brains, Fino,
Willunga Resolutely fresh and local in his sourcing, David Swain
makes a smart addition of Willunga almonds in a coating that brings
appealing crunch to creamy lamb's brains, complemented by the smoky
tang of cured pig's cheek.

Sue Dyson & Roger McShane, Tasmania editors
Tomato bread, clams, celery, tomato, horseradish and capers, The Stackings,
Woodbridge
Inspired by Clamato, this dish is a perfect expression of summer.
Light, fresh and very beautiful but with plenty of flavour spikes,
it was an ideal first dish on a sunny day.

Jerusalem artichoke ice-cream, pumpkin cake,
cider-pressed pears, puffed buckwheat, Garagistes, HobartWe're still bemused that someone could even think it's
a good idea to make a dessert from Jerusalem artichokes, much less
pull off one of the best winter desserts we've ever eaten. As with
many dishes here, it's the counterbalancing of flavours and
textures that provoke the excitement.

Potato cooked in the earth in which it was grown, Attica, MelbourneThis dish is proof that a great dish is about great
cooking, not extravagant ingredients. One potato, crisp saltbush
leaves, smoked goat's curd, young coconut ash and a little
graininess from freshly ground coffee. Who would have thought it
could be so amazing?

Black sesame, lime and yoghurt, Golden
Fields, MelbourneThe feather-light, airy, charcoal-coloured pieces of
black sesame cake strewn across the plate look like fragile lichen.
Sesame features in a wafer and in a dark black sesame paste too.
It's beautifully countered by bright white lime sorbet and a disc
of creamy set yoghurt.

Lozère lamb and morels on a vin-jaune-infused cream,
L'Astrance, ParisThe lamb is, as expected, excellent, but there's a depth,
enhanced by the vin jaune and morels, that lifts this dish into
special territory. A glass of Jean-François Ganevat Cuvée de Garde,
a blend of savagnin and chardonnay, helped too.

Oxtail parmentier, Le Comptoir, ParisParmentier seemed to be the bistro dish of 2011 in
France. Yves Camdeborde's version just edged out the many we tried.
It had the right balance of crunch and crisp bits sticking to the
edge, and underneath, sufficient juices from the rich braised
oxtail to mingle with the potato purée.

Balmain bug with lamb sweetbread, black bean and coconut
curd, The Bentley,
SydneyThe coconut curd alone is a revelation, the star is
the almost-translucent Balmain bug meat, and the depth comes from
the sweetbreads. Multiple layers, each with a purpose.

Baked eggs with Taleggio and preserved lemon, Pigeon
Hole, HobartFrom the moment we tried this dish it became our benchmark
for breakfast eggs and nothing we've eaten since has approached it.
The balance of flavours is extraordinary, the cooking precise, and
it's impossible to tire of it.

Gareth Meyer, Australian Capital Territory editor
Truffle and Gruyère toasted sandwich, Biota, BowralDinner at Biota is great, but for a real head-turner,
head back in the morning to experience this standout breakfast
dish. It's a many-layered affair - thin slices of toast, Gruyère,
and black truffle oozing a buttery rich goodness.

Pork crubeens, Pulp
Kitchen, CanberraIf only all suburban shopping centres boasted the
talents of a Christian Hauberg. In this standout dish, meat from
the head and trotters of the pig is slowly braised, pressed into
shape, fried and paired with apple compote and some creamed
leek.

Grass-fed beef hamburger, Nopa, San FranciscoSan Franciscans would generally not swap a burger at
nearby Zuni Café for quids, but the grass-fed burger at Nopa a
couple of kilometres away is very much its equal. It's beautifully
juicy and tender, and arrives on a soft and buttery bun accompanied
by house-pickled red onions and French fries. Perfect with one of
Nopa's many great cocktails or a local organic ale.

Foie gras, balsamic chocolate kabayaki, raisin cocoa
pulp, sip of aged sake, O Ya,
BostonWhy O Ya? One bite into this inspired signature dish and all
becomes clear. The foie gras has been coated in a sweet-and-sour
mixture (soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and melted chocolate),
pan-seared and presented nigiri-style, making for an astonishing
arrangement of flavours and textures, with aged sake the perfect
accompaniment.

Piece of cow smoked with Tepú and cooked 40 hours with
aroma from Manquehue, Boragó, SantiagoBoragó is Chile's answer to the
weird-science-meets-paddock-to-plate genre of modern cuisine. "We
believe the environment decides what we consume and when," reads
their high-falutin' philosophy. In a tasting menu packed with
innovation and surprise, a dish of beef smoked with Tepú (a
tree endemic to Chile), then slow-poached, coated in a sweet black
powder derived from raw sugar cane and presented as if it were a
smouldering volcanic ember, stands out.

Chocolate fondant with marmalade ice-cream, Dieci e Mezzo, CanberraChocolate fondants come and go, but James Kidman takes
it to a new level when the silky molten Amedei chocolate centre
spills out and mingles with the cleansing tang of a stunning
homemade marmalade ice-cream.

Insalata di Campo, Delfina, San
FranciscoSuch is Delfina's dedication to fine produce that they
can elevate a simple salad of bitter greens pancetta, walnuts and
parmesan to one of the memorable plates of the year. It has
something to do with the incredibly fresh organic local ingredients
and unwaveringly fine technique.

Steak tartare, Cumulus Inc.,
Melbourne In his imagining of the French classic, Andrew McConnell
cedes control over blending the impeccably diced condiments of
cornichon, breakfast radish, capers and shallots with the bright
red cubes of beef rump, seasoned with Dijon and Worcestershire
sauce to his guests. Colourful, fun, exciting mouth-watering
stuff.